Paper roll wrapping, crimping, and heading apparatus have in general placed the head on the end of the roll and the wrapper around the roll at different locations along a transport path. This invention is the result of an effort to combine all these roll packaging operations in a single station, as well as to provide flexibility in configuration for a roll-through layout, automatic head placement and ability to handle non-self-supporting packaging materials. Some roll wrapping apparatus has performed these operations at a single station but in a manner that was inefficient and precluded the wrapped roll from being passed on through the wrapping station under an overhead wrapper backstand.
As is also well known, a paper roll R is customarily wrapped with heavy paper. This wrapper is wound off one of the wrapper supply rolls by attaching, usually by gluing, the forward end of the wrapper onto the paper roll and then rotating the paper to pull the desired layers of wrapper onto the roll. The width of the wrapper will usually be wider than the length of the roll so that the wrapper can be folded or crimped over the end of the roll. A small lightweight inside head is sometimes placed first against the end of the roll, and a heavier outside head is placed over the end of the roll and over the crimped end of the wrapper. The lighter weight inside head is sometimes eliminated or may be either a heavy self, form-sustaining disk or a flexible non-self-supporting head used primarily for weather sealing the end of the roll. As will be noted the flexible-type inside head is difficult to place on the roll with automated equipment because it must be held against the end of the roll while the overhanging end of the wrapper is crimped over the inside head and the end of the roll.